WDM Calliope One of Last of its Kind

For the past 20 years, the whistles of the Western Development Museum
calliope have been a familiar sound to Saskatchewan parade-goers. But the
steam organ in the candy-apple red wagon is one of the last of its kind.

Even when the WDM purchased the calliope keyboard and whistles in 1959, it
followed years of searching for a crafter who knew how to make the 32-
whistle arrangement that produces the distinctive nasal melodies of the
calliope. The Museum has twice rebuilt the calliope, and today, the whistle
arrangement and keyboard are the only original parts.

Steam organs were popular at the turn of the century, but they were never
common. The first steam organ was patented in 1855 by American Joshua
Stoddard. He designed a steam-powered organ to replace church bells in
calling people to worship. When traveling fairs and circuses began building
their own steam calliopes, they were blamed for encouraging young people to
run away with the circus. In total, only about 75 steam calliopes were ever
built. They were soon replaced by smaller and less powerful electric or
compressed air models.

Today, fewer than 20 steam calliopes exist. The only other known calliope in
Canada belongs to a private collector in Stratford, Ont. Steam calliope
players are about as rare as the machines themselves. Arlene Shiplett, a
Saskatoon musician, has the unusual distinction of being a professional
calliope player. On most weekends in the summer, she trades her French horn
and job as a music teacher for ear protectors and a 32-key, 13,000 lb.
calliope. Shiplett began playing the calliope in 1984 as a summer student at
the North Battleford WDM. Her repertoire now includes 75 pre-1930 tunes. She
says playing the calliope is similar to playing a piano, but she has to bang
on the keyboard. When each key is pressed, it opens a valve that makes a
corresponding whistle blow.

"I tape my pinkies, and I have to tape my thumbs to keep them from sliding
between the keys," says Shiplett. Between tunes, visitors approach the
calliope with questions and song requests.
From time to time, Shiplett lets them play. "What's really neat is when
people come who can remember the steam calliopes that played in the '20s and
'30s," she says.

For the past several summers, Shiplett and WDM driver Ken Lorenz have taken
the calliope on the road for Western Development Museum shows and other parades in the province. Over the years,
the calliope has been in rain, snow and even an approaching funnel cloud in
Swift Current.

"We were stuck going the wrong way on a one-way street,"
remembers Lorenz of the Swift Current parade. "People were
running everywhere and we couldn't move. The police finally had
to get us out of there." Long days are required to run the
calliope, because it needs about two hours to "steam up" in the
morning. Wood is hauled to make a fire that is used to boil 98
litres of water. When about 75- 100 lbs of pressure is built up,
the calliope is ready to play. The calliope's last
out-of-province appearance was at Expo '86 in Vancouver, in
front of the glass elevator that housed the Saskatchewan
pavilion. The calliope played five-minute stints 14 times a day
for the six-month World Fair.

Museum Gold: Treasures from the Collection

This
article was originally published as part of a newspaper articles written
by Noelle Grosse in celebration of the Western Development Museum's 50th
anniversary in 1999. The articles appeared as regular features over the
course of late 1998 and 1999 in the Saskatoon Sun,Yorkton This Week
and Enterprise, and as intermittent features in the Regina
Sun. In 2001, all 65 articles were gathered into a publication -
Museum Gold: Treasures from the Collection.